I AM…

Suzy Ashworth - 8 Jul 14

Coming up to 18 months ago, after I had my second child (my beautiful daughter Coco June), I decided that I wasn’t going to go back to the daily grind.  It was time for me to hang up my media boots after 12 long years and re-invent myself.  I chose to finish my training as a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist, something that I had started 3 years before, alongside gaining a hypnobirthing certificate.

It’s the best decision I’ve ever made!  I absolutely love my job. Despite choosing to get my hypnobirthing qualifications; I don’t think I ever thought I would end up being a pregnancy and birth specialist, but that’s what I am and that’s where my heart is.

I would say that there’s only one problem with my new found freedom (and it’s a first world problem, don’t get me wrong). It’s that people make assumptions about who I am and how they think I must be living my life, through the lens of ‘oh she’s a therapist so she must…’ Insert your own guess here. The fact that I’m a therapist AND a mother, well… it doesn’t make me a saint, right?

I found it quite funny to start with, when friends would ask me, whether I was a vegetarian, now I had this new job? Or if I was still drinking, now I was living this new healthy lifestyle? Or would I consider myself an Earth Mother? And I’d be like ‘Are you being serious?’ They were.  Deadly…

So, I’m using this wonderful platform as an opportunity to show who I really am:

1) I am not an oracle.  Yes I can teach you how to stay calm and relaxed during pregnancy and birth, I’m a whizz at helping people to reduce anxiety and I can even help you move past birth trauma.  But, no, I don’t know why your son refuses to eat any of his vegetables, after him doing so well with his baby led weaning….I can’t stop your husband weeing in the cupboard after he’s had a drink and I definitely don’t hypnotize animals!

2) I am not shy of using the odd profanity.  It doesn’t mean I lack intelligence or I’m not a ‘real therapist’ it just means that sometimes, I think, a swear word says it better than any other.

3) I am a business woman.  I am lucky enough to work from home, in a role that I’m beyond passionate about, but don’t think because I don’t live the 9 – 5 lifestyle anymore, that I’m not really working….(That one’s really bugging).

4) I am not Mary Poppins.  I get really annoyed with my kids and my husband sometimes…. And whilst I’m a big fan of doing ‘the work’ I also love and celebrate my imperfections.  I have a few….

5) I am not a believer in baby coming first.  Don’t shoot me!  Whilst I love a cuddle with a new born baby as much as the next person and can talk good baby for hours – I love it!   I’m a bigger lover of women and in my experience, happy Mum, means happy baby – so for me, Mum comes first.

6) I am not a hater of CBeebies.  In fact it’s my go to babysitter for my gorgeous little tiddly winks when I need to give myself some ‘thinking time’ and I don’t want to hide in the toilet.

So whilst, being a mother to two; step mum to one, wife, daughter, sister, dog owner, cleaner, student of life, accountant, CEO, therapist, practitioner and friend, tells you what I do, it doesn’t really tell you who I am.

So let me tell you.

I am believer, in life, women, courage, fun, saying yes, questions, justice, down time, play time, time out, nature, travel, exploration, choice and a large glass of pinot.  Ooh, that felt sooooo good.

Now it’s your turn.  Who are you?

Suzy Ashworth

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